As you like it - Solo
As you like it - Solo
iteration toyooka
2026
In As you like it - Solo, choreographer and dancer Mirte Bogaert turns her own body into a living question. Through movement, she invites the audience to look closely: at the female body, at objectification and vulnerability, and at the ways in which we have learned to look at one another.
The performance grew out of more than three years of research into the naked body and the cultural meanings attached to it. During a research residency in Tokyo in 2025 at TOKAS, Bogaert explored changing ideas of nudity, sexuality and the female body in Japan. She became particularly interested in two moments when Western influence had a strong impact on Japanese society: the Meiji era, when Japan rapidly modernised and adopted many ideas from the West, and the period after World War II, when the presence of the American military brought new cultural influences.
Her encounters with Japanese strip theatres became an important part of the research. These spaces raised questions about how the body is present and performing, looked at and desired, and about how ideas of sexuality and nudity can change when cultures meet.
In As you like it - Solo, a Western body enters this history many decades later. What does it mean for a Western woman to perform and question the gaze in Japan today? And how might her own cultural background affect what she sees, what she brings into the room, and how she is seen by others?
The performance moves between visibility and invisibility, seduction and resistance, pleasure and discomfort. The body can appear exposed, playful, strange, powerful or vulnerable. Sometimes it seems to invite the gaze; at other moments, it escapes it. A fabric extends the body and creates shifting relationships between the performer and the audience.
Rather than offering a single answer, As you like it - Solo opens a space for questions. What do we consider naked? When does looking become sexual? Who has the right to look, and who decides what a body means? How are these ideas shaped by culture, history and our own experiences?
The performance is an invitation to enter this conversation together. By bringing a Western body into dialogue with Japanese histories and contemporary perspectives, Bogaert hopes to create a space where different ways of seeing can meet, question each other and remain open.
Ultimately, As you like it - Solo is not only about the body on stage. It is also about the body watching. The performance asks what happens when we become aware of our own gaze - and what new possibilities might emerge when we look, and are looked at, with curiosity.
Research, choreography and performance Mirte Bogaert Remix and sound design Stephan Meidell Music selection Ive Stevenheydens Sound technician Mari Yamaguchi Producer and interpreter on site Sachi Masuda Dramaturgical companion Avni Sethi Light design Kana Watanabe Costume design Nayaritas Tailor-Designer Tour Manager Gulli Sekse / ReArtica Photo, Video & Edit Ryo & Maki Igaki / Igaki Photo Studio Program design Ryonosuke Endo Special thanks to Nanako Matsumoto, Ryonosuke Endo and Sachi Masuda Earlier contribution Ryoya Fudetani (light designer)
Supported by Toyooka Theater Festival Fringe Selection (JP), Charleroi Danse (BE), FFUK (NO), Statens Kunstnerstipend – arbeidsstipend (NO), Fond for Lyd og Bilde (NO) Residencies Charleroi Danse (BE), BUDA (BE), Bergen Dansesenter (NO), Samvirket PreForm Fjaler (NO)
